5 Consequences of an Unhealthy IT Infrastructure

By Brittany Fugate, CEO at Cenetric 

You can’t get the best results in your business if you’re not striving for excellence in every area — including your IT infrastructure.

Your IT infrastructure includes your hardware, software and network, and if you don’t take the time to make sure they’re all working well together, you could be losing out on productivity and profit. If you haven’t kept up with IT maintenance, you might be noticing some uncomfortable effects in your business. 

1: It’s slowing your business down 

Technology was invented to make life — and business — easier. It should be helping you to propel your company into the future, not holding you back. 

If you don’t set up your infrastructure properly (or even just one component of it), it’s going to slow your business down. That could be a poorly configured network, a lack of cybersecurity protections, out-of-date software, or devices that aren’t suited for the work you’re doing. 

To combat disruptions to your work, you should first evaluate all your hardware, software and network components and make sure everything is up to date. This includes any pending device updates — or even replacing the tech itself if it’s just too far gone. You should look for areas of tech debt to ensure you aren’t spending money where you shouldn’t. 

For most companies, this isn’t how you should spend your valuable time. If you don’t have a dedicated IT team, you can outsource these tasks as a one-time project or as an ongoing service to a managed IT service provider. 

The right provider will put your business’ technology on a maintenance and upgrade plan to make sure it’s running at optimal efficiency and stays within your budget. (And even if you do have an IT team, they’re often too busy with strategic, revenue-driving initiatives to continuously monitor and maintain systems. That’s where co-managed services come in.)

2: Your team isn’t productive

Your employees are there to be a driving force in your business. They can’t be slowed down because a piece of tech isn’t working correctly.

Your team’s digital employee experience (DEX) can have a big impact on your company’s operations and profits. A study by 1E of the effects technology has on employee experience revealed that digital friction can cause all sorts of problems in your organization. 

Respondents in the study told researchers that consequences of digital friction included missed work deadlines, missed opportunities for sales, and employee attrition. 

At the very least, your employees can’t work optimally without well-managed IT — and at worst, a lack of IT management can actively hold back their progress.

Your team certainly shouldn’t be left to troubleshoot their IT problems on their own. That pulls them away from the real work they should be doing and takes them longer than it would take a pro to handle. A managed services provider can prevent problems from occurring in the first place and quickly handle any issues that do pop up.

3: Your customer satisfaction declines 

When your technology fails, you can’t supply the service that your customers require and destroys your customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention efforts. When they purchase a product or service from you, they’re putting their trust in you that you’ll deliver. If technology prevents you from doing it, that trust dissolves quickly.

You only have to look as far as the recent Crowdstrike debacle to see how dependent we all are on technology to run our businesses smoothly. One buggy update to a Microsoft cybersecurity tool caused thousands of airline flights to stay grounded, upset financial transactions, and even hindered 911 services. 

Needless to say, customers of the affected companies aren’t very happy with them, and those companies are now paying the hefty price of having to smooth things over to keep customers on board. 

To retain your customers, you need to take as much care of your technology as you do any other area of your business. A well-built, well-maintained infrastructure will help you avoid issues that scare customers off.

4: Employee morale is dipping

A negative mindset isn’t something that you need or want in the office, but this is exactly what you’ll get if employees feel like they can’t do their work well because of dated or laggy technology. You’ll notice a huge drop in morale if your tech starts to fail due to a poorly managed IT infrastructure. 

The same 1E study that showed the operational effects of digital friction found negative cultural impacts as well. Forty-two percent (42%) of respondents said bad IT experiences caused problems between the IT team and other departments, and 33% said they lowered employee morale. 

Simply put: Tech that doesn’t perform frustrates your employees and makes them unhappy at work. And that’s not what any company is striving for. 

5: You’re losing money

A poorly managed IT infrastructure will end up costing your business more money than having someone manage it for you. If your tech isn’t working, you’re looking at expensive downtime.

No matter what business you’re in, when tech is down, you can’t operate properly until everything is back up and running. Depending on the size of your business, every single minute of downtime can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

If you don’t have an IT team or an outsourced company to help, getting back to normal can take far longer than you might think. You’ll also incur expensive bills from break/fix type computer repair companies whose business model requires them to charge more to get you back up and running. 

You’re an expert in your business, not IT, so don’t burden yourself with trying to fix your tech when it goes down. It makes more sense to work with an experienced team of IT professionals who know how to keep your business efficient and productive.

Cenetric makes sure your IT is running smoothly

Having a team of experts you trust to manage your IT infrastructure for you takes all these worries off your plate. That’s what we do every day for our clients at Cenetric. 

We ensure your IT infrastructure is well-managed and monitored for any potential problems. If something does go wrong, we’re there to help you solve the issue as soon as possible. No more feverishly searching for someone to help at the worst possible time — as your managed IT services provider, we’re on top of any issue ASAP.

All the negative impacts we’ve talked about could cripple your company in one way or another, but they don’t have to. Cenetric delivers responsive, expert IT services for growing companies in Kansas City — and beyond. Tell us about your challenges, and let’s figure them out together.